Private Interpretation

The Roman Catholic Church's primary tactic to keep the common people, the peasants, under their control, was not allowing them to read the Bible. The peasants had to rely on the Church for biblical interpretation, which meant that the Church could make the peasants believe whatever they wanted. This may have started because a group of Christians decided that is people interpreted the Bible for themselves, all sorts of weird doctrines would pop up. We know now today that this is true. After control of the Scripture was wrested from the Pope's hands, heresy began to circulate. Does this mean that private interpretation of the Bible is wrong? No, it does not. People have the right to interpret the Bible, but they have to interpret it properly. This means they don't use the scientific method. The scientific method says to make a hypothesis and prove it. When you interpret the Bible, you are not supposed to prove your own theories, you are to pull theories from the Bible.